Since July 2008 I am living in Lima, Peru. In this blog I write about Lima, it´s history, architecture, food and music.

Monday, 8 June 2009

Peruvian nobility today

Nobility in Peru. It seems an incongruous combination, as nobility is more connected to the old world than the new one. Which is also true in one way, as the present nobility in Peru is of old world origin. In the colonial times noble titles where created in Peru for persons who distinguished themselves. An overview of all these titles can be found in edition 21 of the Revista del Instituto Peruano de Investigaciones Genealogicas from 1995. In 1823 after the independence Bolivar abolished the nobility, as being an undesired aspect of the former Spanish colonial rule. Many titles that had been created in Peru moved with their holders to Spain and are now held in that country.

However during the 20th century several Peruvian descendants of the old colonial families applied in Spain for rehabilitation of their hereditary titles and were granted them. And even now in the 21st century, almost 200 years since independence, claimants petition for their ancestral titles.

José Manuel Pardo Paredes, since 16-5-2002 7.Marqués de Fuentehermosa de Miranda * Lima 22-8-1947 ( created 1761, rehabilitated 1893 and 1994). His father inherited the beautiful Quinta Heeren in Barrios Altos in Lima. The Quinta Heeren housed in the beginning of the 20th century several embassies.

José Agustín de Aliaga Fernandini, since 24-7-1996 8.Marqués de Zelada de la Fuente * … (1688, 1958). A descendant of the conquistador Jerónimo de Aliaga, companion of Pizarro during the conquest of Peru in the 1530´s. His mother belonged to the important industrial Fernandini family. One of his positions is director of Sociedad Minera el Brocal S.A.A.

Gonzalo Jorge de Aliaga Ascenzo, since 12-3-2004 8.Conde de San Juan de Lurigancho * 6-9-1947 (1695, 1958). Descendant of the conquistador Jerónimo de Aliaga, companion of Pizarro during the conquest of Peru. He still owns and lives in the Casa Aliaga in the centre of Lima.

Apart from persons with the Spanish noble titles titled foreigners have moved to Peru and now live here. Especially Polish nobles found in Peru a new home. The most known of these are the count and countess Potocki of the family that once owned Łańcut, one of the most luxurious castles of Europe. Stanislaw Potocki and his wife Rosa Susanna Larco de la Fuente frequent regularly the society columns. Rosa was first married to an uncle of the present Conde de Alastaya.

Another well known Polish aristocrat living in Peru is Maria Rostworowska, although not for society reasons but for her groundbreaking work as a historian. Her father Jan Jacek Rostworowski married Peruvian Rita de Tovar del Valle. Maria was first married in Poland to count Zygmunt Broel-Plater and after their divorce in Peru with Alejandro Diez Canseco Coronel Zegarra, a relative as well of the Conde de Alastaya.

Apart from Eastern European émigrés, a grandson of the last German emperor, Prince Franz Joseph of Prussia married in 1959 in Lima as his third wife Eva Herrera Valdeavellano. Thus the future pretender to the imperial Russian throne, Georgi Romanov, who is the son of Franz Joseph´s eldest son and the present Russian pretender Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, has two Peruvian aunts.

Another German nobleman settled in the beginning of the 19th century in Peru: Clemens Anton Freiherr von Althaus. He was the illegitimate son of the countess regent of Schaumburg-Lippe and Clement August von Kaas. He was first an officer in the army of the kingdom of Hanover and moved to Peru in 1820. In Arequipa he married in 1826 a cousin of the writer Flora Tristan. Their descendants still live in Peru.

As stated in the first paragraph the present Peruvian nobility is of old world origin. Until the beginning of the 19th century however there used to be an indigenous nobility as well, which vanished completely. The next story in this blog will be of the old Peruvian nobility. The descendants of the Incas and of the pre Inca royalty, who maintained a certain position until the independence of Peru.

How do I contact José Manuel Pardo Paredes, Marqués de Fuentehermosa de Miranda? I am trying to trace a double portrait of Teresa Pardo Y Barreda and her daughter Ana, both Marquesses Fuente Hermosa de Miranda, painted inNew York 1917 by Adolfo Muller-Ury. Thanks Stephen Conradstephenjconrad2@aol.co.uk